The central challenge in “search” (as in “search engines”) has been to find the “relevant” documents in response to the user query. The dual problem is the online advertising problem, in which the central challenge is to find the best match between a given user in a given context and suitable advertisements. Similar computational models are typically used in both matching processes, e.g., the Boolean model or the vector space model. The marriage between search and advertising gives rise to the so-called “sponsored search,” in which ads co-occur with search results on the same display. However, there is an ongoing need for providing more relevant results to a user inquiry, and more targeted and effective advertising in an online or computerized environment.
Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.